It’s pledge time for public radio here in Hartford, and WNPR is on the prowl for donations. Now, I listen all the time and I am a member, but I can’t help but wonder if they would make ten times or a hundred times the money they make now if there was a way to shut them up and get back to the news once you’d paid.
I guarantee I’d pony up the cash every time.
6 thoughts on “Public radio’s pledge drives…”
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KQED, the NPR station in San Francisco will end it’s pledge drive when it’s reached its goal. I’ve definitely known them to end a day or two early. Maybe as more people catch on, the drives will become even shorter.
I know what you mean. I’ve contributed every year since I started listening to public radio, and it drives me crazy that at least 4 times a year (our local station does quarterly drives + special 1-2 day events) I have to have shows and news interrupted for pledge drives when I’ve already given them money! I’d double my annual donation if there was a way to get pledge-drive-free radio once you’ve donated. As it is, I tend to listen to other stations during pledge drives. Sigh.
KQED FM used to do what I called the “Threat Drive” where they would threaten to do a pledge drive if they couldn’t raise the money they needed via 15 second announcements.
And then I hooked my iPod up to my car stereo and haven’t listened to the radio since, so the only person I hear asking for money is Ira Glass on the This American Life podcast.
I lolled at this Tipa. Thankfully that sort of fund raising seems to be rare here in Europe than in the US but we still get the odd one usually called some bizarre name ending in “athon” for some reason: Telethon, talkathon, danceathon, Bungeejumpathon …..
Well, in the UK (not sure about Ireland but you could tell me if it’s the same), the BBC is funded entirely by the government. Here in the US, public television and radio is only partially funded by the government — and there’s many MANY people in the current administration who would like to cut off funding entirely, due to a perceived liberal bias. I dunno, I seem to hear just as many interviews with Republicans as with Democrats on NPR, and usually they have representatives of both and don’t take sides. Naturally, the administration wishes they WOULD take sides, and even installed an extremely partisan Republican administrator to get public television and radio to broadcast more shows favorable to the administration.
PBS/NPR have managed to weather these attacks from the government via funding from the actual, real public, as opposed to politicians, who can’t look at any good thing without turning it into a warped, bad thing. So I am happy and thrilled to pay for the service of getting in-depth, balanced news. Thursday I listened to stories about both McCain’s flip-flops, and Obama’s as well. I am willing to pay for the good things.
I just wish that once I had paid, they’d get back to the news. Let the non-payers listen to the pledge drive 🙂
NPR is just FOX for the left, except the public is forced to pay for it.
People who agree with FOX don’t see it as biased
People who agree with NPR don’t see that as biased either
But both are so horribly biased I cannot stand either one.